__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

Friday we headed out to see a few riding friends and to check out,
The Huge Tree House that is in Crossville TN.
We left early after chores so we could beat the storms that brew in the afternoons…
WE arrived on the west side of Knoxville well before a storm hit..
It was nice to ride in sunshine for once.

Our buddies rolled in most of that afternoon.. About 28 Valkyries plus an ST~ KLR~ BMW a Wing and a Harley..
We headed to eat some supper … The second time I was ever in a Ruby Tuesdays..
We had 3 small tables plus our huge table…
Back at the motel for some tire kicking.. And winter stories.
Ah Saturday morning waiting for a few locals that didn’t spend the night..
Ya just never know where a BWDR will turn up..
We stopped at Norris dam ...
Always time for tire kicking ...
Then it was off to ride some more cool twisty roads.
Wow we rode the Devils Triangle in TN 116/330/62 All I can say is dang !!
What a great road…
You pass the Bushy Mountain Prison (now closed down)
It was a good time for a group photo.

Ah also a good time for photo op.. BWDR & RDV represented

After that it was head to Crossville to the TreeHouse..

Once you get on the gravel road you can start to see the treehouse very cool…
Even scraps are used..
It was a very cool thing... I have heard so many stories about it..
It has 8 stories and none level… No nails in the tree as well…
They still hold Sunday services there …
A cool swing…
When you get to the top of the treehouse you look outside at the garden and hey it spells something ..
Then it was back to the motel for more tire kicking
Thumper is real proud of his shirt..
Highbinder telling a good joke..That he heard while at the RDV...
It was a good weekend ….
Great roads.. Good conversions..
Plus the weather did hold while we rode all day Saturday...
Here’s a link to more photos…More Photos .. They all have a little blurb with them

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

You need to have Don side sweep with a video camera on you, now that would be fun.

Yuppers that it would

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

Well we headed out early Thursday morning to meet up with some of our Valkyrie riding buddies in NGa..

Ya got to get a cool shadow shot when ya can..

To ride down to Natchez Mississippi, and meet up with the rest of the riders..
It took us a while to find the right truck stop .Lets just say we didn’t get the ex.#...But we found it….

We say our hey how have ya beens’ and then we are off via the back roads to Bessemer,Al……

We are now a total of 5 Valks strong..
We made a few wrong turns, but then we are on track..

All is going well ..Till we get to Gadsden,Al.. And one of the bikes has a front flat…
SmokinJoe pulls over ,We figure out what it is ,cracked valve stem.. Ok lets put some air in and look for a place..
To work on the tire…. Made a few loops and found a Sears… We needed some big C clamps…

I had a bead breaker in my parts bag (HB x-mas gift)…

LOL we all extra valve stems with us … 3 of us had air compressors …
At one point Joe wanted to head home.. Highbinder said to him YOU can’t go home this is YOUR ride !!
We all said hey we can fix this.. By now it’s 107* We couldn’t bring the bike in a bay at the Sears auto ,But in the back it was shady..
It took 2 hours with getting everything together … And we was back on the road…

The guys at Sears even helped at the very end by letting use their big air compressor to set the bead..

We rolled in Bessemer at darkish… Pick up one of them coupon hotel books ..
Stayed at the Jameson Inn .. Grabbed a bite to eat..And some laughs about the days events..

Our leader for this legg of the ride.. Hubcapsc ..

We sat outside talking more about the days events…

Highbinder packing his bike .. Nice shirt

Our buddy Leon from Birmingham,Al and his friend Sid met up with us in the morning..

Now 7 Valks strong and we head out…
Hmm ..LOL…. We knew we might be in trouble when out leader takes a wrong turn from the hotel lot…

More back roads Friday morning and a few wrong turns ..

With 7 big bikes can be adventure in itself…

We are on this road that is a real back road ruffer then helll…
I say to HB in the CB I bet this one turns into dirt !! Yuppers I nailed that..
As soon as we crossed the Tracks..

LOL it changed to dirt… We talked a little ...
Made it a pit stop,ate some Muscadines that I found… And off we went…

At this point Leon and Sid , said as soon as we get to black top we will meet ya’ll in Natchez…

We rode with SJ for about another hour, and we too said we’ll meet ya in Natchez..
We had told some friends we will be in Natchez around 1:30 … It was already noon….

So we took US 45 to US 84 very nice open roads ..
It was 104* It was time to get to the hotel…We rolled in to Natchez around 3:00....
Then it was find the Isle Of Capri hotel..
HB & I found the hotel and got our room..
Wow a very nice hotel… They even let us keep our bikes under the canopy..

We found our friends who also got there later then expected..
Strider broke down at least 12 times he said..

The petcock kept giving him woes… Along with a weak battery the poor guy only got 20 miles out and needed it jumped….

Strider was telling DDT about what his day was like.
DDT has 406K on his Valkyrie...

The hotel had a shuttle ..

It took ya to the riverboat for the Buffet and gambling..

FlamingoBabe found this little Flamingo.. And it just had to go home with her...

Punisher ~~

Came to the rescue and ran to Wally world to get Strider a battery..
They did a fix on the petcock.. All of this was right in front of the hotel..
And they never said a bad word. about it… How cool is that....

We all just hung out in front of the hotel...

SmokinJoe was telling everyone about a fellow Valk rider that had a deer encountered on The Trace heading to the hotel.

Well That's part One....
More to come in the next day or so...

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

My special friend Flamingo Babe picked up this nice Spyder a few weeks back..

Ah time for the first photo op… The Start of the NTP...

This was her first semi Solo long trip on it...
She did great!!

It was some string of Dragons (Valkyries) behind me…

Wow 27 bikes string out..

The Mississippi end had a lot of cool Spanish Moss canopy

It's a lot like the BRP with out the mountains and curvy roads..
You had the feeling of riding through an estate..
Very well kept...

The next stop was The Windsor Ruins..

Ya have to take a shot of your bikes there..

They really remind me of Greek or Roman Colosseum Ruins…

Until you see what the house looked like…

This place was HUGE It makes me look so small...

A close up shot of the tops.. Some detail..

We took a really cool road out from the ruins… Thanks to Hubcapsc for this shot..

Then back on the Trace….

The Turkeys were thick must have seen 100 or more…
But only saw 2 Deer….

The Reservoir Ross Burnett was huge that skirted around on the Trace..

We didn’t stop at any of the pull offs..
It would have been hard with that many bikes…

But I would suggest to stop at theses..French camp~Any of the Mounds~Any part of the Old Trace~Sunken Trace ~Mount Locus.. Just to name a few..

We picked up a few more Valks at one of the campgrounds on The Trace.
And a good deal of some peeled off… That we knew weren’t going to make the full run.. Had other obligations at home.

Then it was off to Booneville for the night…
A little more then the half way mark..

At the motel in Booneville.. We once again took over the parking lot for the night party.. Talked about the days ride and how nice the weather had been...

Called in for a 8 Pizzas...

That took an hour to show..

A little catherding....
This little puss showed up at pizza time..
So we fed em and gave it some water..

Most of us would have liked to take it home, but alas we all lived to far to have it travel safely on a bike...

Well that's all for part 2 ...
Part 3 and the final installment ....Coming up soon...

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

Sunday morning in Booneville,Ms. was an early morning wake up..
A few more riders where heading home and not running the rest of the way...
We all said our see ya's ..
This part was the last of a great ride with Old and New friends...

Even with a a bunch of riders that left we still had a good size group..

We hung out here for a bit as we where close to the end...

Some of us took pix..

And some just chatted about the weekend...

As I was walking around taken photos..
I saw one of our riders with this tee shirt .. Yikes !!
I just don't like clowns ~shudder as I see this again...
Then I though of my Buddy ScottP....

Then it was time for the last fuel stop as a group..

Then this neato hack pulled in..
The guy said he was just riding around...

The money shot the last of the riders at the end of the Trace..
We finished with 16 bikes in all ...

It was a great time the group stayed together Dragon herding at it's best....
Had lots of laughs and good tech chats as well...

A few of us stopped for some dinner before we all scatted like quail..
We left Nashville around 5 pm...
Highbinder and I pulled in our drive way at 11:30 pm..
Around 10 pm we grabbed a snack and HB said well what do you want to do??
LOL... I said I want my own bed tonight
It was a very chilly ride at night..
I sure wish I had my gerbings with me...
Gosh I love my Valk.......

Edit~~~ Oops I forgot the Total miles.. 1798 ...

Till next time....
Tracy

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

Wow that looks like a fun ride!!
Great ride report, Tracy, with sweet pics

__________________
Let's ride!!! - No offense, but there've been a lot of people over time who were just as sure, yet got it wrong. - Una necedad, aunque la repitan millones de bocas, no deja de ser una necedad. - "you know that I could have me a million more friends and all I'd have to lose is my point of view" (Prine)

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}

Thanks Jed ,
Glad you enjoyed it ..
It's funny Highbinder & I have been cross the US 5 times .. LOL And I haven't posted not one of those trips...

Maybe this winter I'll get a few of them up..
I always kept a daily log for most of the trips..
Since 2002.....
Half where camping across the US..
The other half where hotels across the US...

__________________TISELife is what you make of it~If it don't fit make alterationsCheck it from time to time as I'm always adding to it..My Rides and life on the FarmJust because the road is rocky doesn't mean your spirits should get rocky, too.{Crazy Cora}